The Gluten Free Wonderful Bread

Wade's been having bread?  What?  Oh yeah!  Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Wonderful Bread.  It's pretty much the best thing to happen to him since becoming gluten free. 

Wade loves sandwiches, I mean what five year old doesn't?  Peanut butter, peanut butter, peanut butter, that's his stuff.  And Nutella.  He loves toast, gets sad when other people have it and he doesn't, and is now having the time of his life with his own personal loaf of Gluten Free bread made just for him. 

Making home made bread is a total "I'm a good mommeeee!" thing and a big cause for eyerolls.  Then again, some people do it just because they think it's awesome.  I myself am all for it when it's possible to do so but then again I cheat at it by using a bread machine.  

We have the Sunbeam 5891 2 pound model and I've had it for about three years now.  I've made a few different loaves from scratch over the years, including a honey mustard bread, a cardamom bread, and a delicious chocolate bread.  I've even made jam in it.  But I also really think that gathering all of the ingredients can be a pain at times, so I generally find a good mix and stick with it.  There's a Hawaiian bread mix that I've been stuck on for a few years now.  So good that we eat just a whole loaf of fresh warm bread for dinner with loads of butter.  

So the whole gluten free bread thing?  Got a million times easier when we found Bob's Gluten Free mix.  We have found frozen loaves of gluten free bread at Winco, but it's expensive and small.  And frozen.  Not that I'm against frozen bread in general, as our usual plan of action for the rest of our family bread supply is to hit up the discount aisle in the back of the store and grab loaves for 50 cents to a buck and freeze them until we need them.  But the gluten free loaves that come frozen are $4, the slices are dinky, and there are only about 14 slices.  

We're happy to be baking our own 1.5 pound loaves now.  The Bob's Red Mill is of higher quality, makes larger (taller) slices, and is easy to make in my bread machine (which isn't just monkey-math as there are complicated things involved like "enough egg whites to fill 3/4 of a cup plus one whole egg.)  

How does it turn out?  

 

Sweet, hearty, and easy to slice.  Some of my breads come out with big giant holes through them from the way they were mixed, but not this stuff.  It mixes very clean and produces good solid bread.  

Wade loves the crap out of it.  Smacks his lips when he comes home and smells it in the house baking.  A kid with a gluten free peanut butter sandwich is a happy kid.  We like to make our kid happy.  

On another note, we tested him with some Quaker Oatmeal (which I previously debunked as NOT gluten free) and he seemed to be okay with it.  I'm still cautious, but it seems to be all right.  

Guess what else we found?  Gluten Free mac and cheese!  Stay tuned...

You're Not Gluten Free, Quaker Oats.

At Fresh And Easy the other day we were shopping for things Wade could eat.  Down the breakfast aisle we went and grabbed a box of Kix and then stopped in front of the oats.  And for a little over $3, we found for sale a 2 lb. tube of Quaker Oats. 

Oats, from what I've learned, Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology published a  study that concluded: “Long-term use of oats included in the gluten-free diets of patients with celiac disease does not stimulate an immunological response locally in the mucosa of the small intestine.”

TL;DR: oats are fine.

But--and there's always a but--Quaker Oats are considered to be "cross contaminated" with gluten.

Their website says this on the subject of whether their oats are gluten free:

Because oats are grown, stored, transported in bulk, they may contain trace amounts of wheat, rye and barley. USDA grain standards allow a certain percentage of other grains to be present in the oats. Therefore, gluten may be found in oats, even if very small amounts of these other grains are present.

This is kind of like how there are certain small percentages of bug guts in your bread because of how impossible it is to completely rid plants that are growing in fields of bugs, which are then accidentally ground up into our flours and such--not fun to think about but the USDA does let stuff slide.  Or at least that's what some teacher told me.  Sounds reasonable, anyway.

The thing with oats is that not all who are gluten sensitive are sensitive to specially certified gluten free oats such as Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats, Legacy Valley Certified Gluten Free Whole Grain Rolled Oats, and Gifts Of Nature Certified Gluten Free Rolled Oats.  But I read on a gluten free forum that a person who is newly diagnosed with gluten allergy/celiac disease should not consider oats until they have been dianosed for a year and have had your followup bloodwork done. The person's antibodies should be in the negative range before even bothering with the specialized oats.  The extra careful ones won't even consider oats as a viable option because of the risk for potential Wheat Turds (or worse for some people) involved. 

Generally speaking, unless it is 100% certified gluten free, it's not safe.  And even the list of "gluten aware" products at Fresh And Easy warn that even though the product does not contain gluten, it may be processed somewhere that it may become contaminated with gluten.  Only certain products from their list get the burgundy and green "gluten free" sticker on its shelf.  The Kix and the Jell-O to name a few. 

Besides the fact that it was made with Maltodextrin, the granola bar that set off Wade's horrible yet very telling bout of Wheat Turds a few weekends ago may have been made with contaminated oats. 

I've yet to find specialty oats anywhere but online at this time.  Though I did notice that Stater's sells the McCann's Irish Oats.  At almost $8 for a tall can I had to really stop and consider whether it was worth spending the money on, considering they didn't actually say that they were 100% safe and even though Willie really likes oatmeal, he's already got the big thing of Quaker Oats that Wade can't eat.  Dumping nearly $10 on something we basically already have and that may not be safe seemed dumb to me.  And it probably is.  Because McCann's has this to say about their oats:

All McCann’s oat products are processed in a dedicated oatmeal mill that handles only oatmeal. In the supply chain between farm and mill, there is a possible cross contamination with other grains, such as wheat and barley but we reckon that the level of non-oat grains to be less than 0.05%. Cleaning equipment within the milling process would remove the vast majority of these grains along with other elements such as stones, straw etc. But we cannot guarantee that McCann’s oats are totally gluten free and we recommend that consumers use their own judgement as to whether they wish to use our oatmeal or not. Many celiacs can tolerate our oatmeal products without any adverse effect but they may not suit those who are particularly sensitive.

So as whimsical and fitting as it would be to feed Wade "Irish Oats," even though he's actually Scottish as I've not a lick of Irish in me, it's just not safe.  Even though I would totally willingly drop $10 on something that is safe for him. 

Take for example the Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Bread Mix, which at $6 a bag (that makes one loaf,) I was willing to give it a try.  Results of that little experiment next time. 

The Brown Rice Spaghetti Kid

One of the products on the Fresh And Easy "Gluten Aware" grocery list is brown rice spaghetti.  Being new at this gluten free stuff I was actually pretty happy to see something on the list that would replace something that Wade enjoys so much, as his "bestest dinner evah" is spaghetti.  In fact it was one of the meals we gave him when we thought he was all better.  And naturally, he threw it up part way through the meal because it had wheat in it. 

Anyway, we grabbed some of these brown rice noodles, also noticed that they sell brown rice rotini, and a jar of Puro spaghetti sauce.  We noticed on the label of the spaghetti sauce that it said it was processed in the same facility that processes wheat, etc, but that it went on to say that these products are separated in order to prevent contamination.  Plus it was like a buck a jar, and since the noodles were almost $3 on their own, I figured I could skate by with some cheap sauce. 

The whole pot was to be made just for Wade.  With less options for meals I am all about making him his own dinners that he can eat, because frankly, I won't lie, the whole house is not going gluten free.  We have three very gluten addicted adults and a gluten loving 7 year old who would only give it up if it were absolutely necessary to Wade's health. 

Now because we do have wheat in our home, we are technically a facility that processes wheat.  But, at home I feel like we can control it more, where as in a factory you can only hope. 

I know some people are troopers to the extreme and they banish everything wheat and they don't pig out on pizza and toast in front of the little gluten free kid but we're not that well off and we can't just go and toss out a bunch of perfectly good food that the adults and Ty (Wade's brother) can eat. 

And who can argue with ramen?  It sucks that Wade can't eat it, but if I can have lunch for 17 cents I'm going to have lunch for 17 cents.  That way I can still buy Wade his special $4 pretzels and pancake mix. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm actually pretty lucky to have Fresh And Easy around.  I've been told that Gluten Free Foods are expensive, or at places like Trader Joes "affordable."  I don't generally shop at Trader Joe's because it's over in Redlands and I no longer drive, but from what I've seen the few times I've been there it's more pricey than Fresh And Easy on a lot of things.  Actually, Fresh And Easy tends to run a bit less expensive than Stater's (a Southern California grocery chain) and I always seem to get more food for the money I spend there.  Plus they print that nice $3 off $30 coupon every week. 

Of course we have to wait for David to go there because it's in Calimesa (next town over) so it's not a bike ride thing...though it could be doable as long as we don't get anything that will perish on the way home.  Yes we do have a thermal bag from Dollar Tree but I'm not sure how long it will work for, and we're talking an hour + ride. 

Anyway, so this brown rice spaghetti business.  Willie, who cooked the noodles, reported to me that the noodles cook weird.  He said there was kind of a goop on top of the water, they looked really--not like noodles, he said.  But then when he dumped them out they were fine.  They mixed with the sauce just fine, the texture was fine, and they were indeed noodle shaped.  Most importantly Wade was very pleased.  We gave him a couple chicken legs on the side to go with it (chicken legs are like $3 a dozen raw, we just bake or boil them and give them to him with eggs or with veggies at dinner.)  He's got a whole big container of leftovers all for himself in the fridge, too.  Because frankly?  I'm sorry but I'm not turned on by alternative ingredients. 

Remember that I am lactose intolerant so I've been dealing with soy crap for years now.  I just in the last year discovered almond milk, but all this Veggie Shreds and Tofu Rella has got me sick from the tit to the bone. 

As for what is going on at school, well, they need a doctor's note to give him special meals.  Yes I did send snacks like popcorn, Skittles, and a container of plain Rice Chex (without peanut butter and Nutella on them like I do them at home because we have to be sensitive to the five peanut free friends in the classroom this year) but Wade gets to eat breakfast at school too since he's AM kindergarten. 

The child nutrition services director called me and said that there are far less options for breakfast than there are for lunch, but even without the note (which we can't get until he sees the allergist which he can't see until he sees his doctor and yes that's two co-payments and that's pissing me off) she said she couldn't do anything--but she is.  They're importing hard boiled eggs from the high school and checking the warehouse for Kix and Rice Chex.  He said he's been eating hard boiled eggs and oranges for a week, but the lady told me it would take a while before she could get the sausage and egg patties over to his school.  Which is fine.  He does eat here before he leaves, it's just really hard to go to school and see all of your friends eating and YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY. 

I'm grateful that the school district is accommodating him anyway. 

Next up, Quaker Oats:  Friend Or Foe?